I remember the day when I first got seriously interested in magic. I went to see Penn and teller do there show in 2000. I was seriously inspired not to just do tricks but to entertain. What were some of your favorite moments of inspiration, and how do they still affect you?

I'll say this everytime, and I'm not the only person I know who has said this: The "religous experience" that convinced me that close up magic was the best and noblest pursuit in life? Seeing Al Goshman's act in person, almost impromptu, in the middle of a hotel lobby at a convention somewhere. I'll never forget it.

Other inspirations: The first, second, third, and fourth times (okay, all the times)I saw Michael Skinner work in person. His appearance here in Hawaii for the IBM convention set a standard you carry around in your head for the rest of your career.

Finally, it would be a sin to let this thread go any further without mentioning Rene Levand. If you don't know why, I implore you to find out.

As Curtis Kam wrote"I'll say this everytime, and I'm not the only person I know who has said this: The "religous experience" that convinced me that close up magic was the best and noblest pursuit in life?

Your explanation is also inspiring Curtis. What a beautiful way to describe the feeling when close-up magic bites you.

I myself was hooked when I saw Jimmy Grippo work. I wish I had three or four days to explain that sensation.

In my humble opinion there was no better performer. It was awesome, which probably accounts why he worked at Las Vegas' Desert Inn Hotel and then went to Caesars Palace for another 25 years. Jimmy and I first spoke about a close-up room at Caesars before the Magical Empire. There was talk about Jimmy Grippo Day and more but that mood was not welcome by his family, as it hinted to retirement, of which Jimmy was not ready.

I even sent a six page letter to Allen Bregman, Caesars entertainment boss, with Jimmy's sanction, about a close-up room proposal. There is more, but I must stop.......

When I was 10 or so, a friend blew me away with a simple paddle trick using a butter knife and six bits of paper. That opened my eyes not just to close-up but to the beauty of pure, impromptu sleight-of-hand with ungimmicked objects.

Later in the 1960s, I saw some guy with a moustache on a TV talk show doing impossible things with coins and salt shakers, while the camera just burned his hands. I now realize it was Goshman who stoked my desire to learn coin sleight-of-hand.

In college around 1974, I somehow got myself invited to a party at the home of a Rutgers physics professor (I was a journalism major and aspiring science writer). A young guy whose name I never learned started blowing people away with card sleight-of-hand. Card magic could be entertaining and varied!! Who'd a thought?

There've been further rechargings over the decades, but it started with a dinky paddle trick.

For me it was my imagination that fired me up.I read a book on the life of John Scarne and I just imagined how amazing he must have been? John was always good at talking himself up.

I then saw a guy in a mall to a Svegali Pitch who had a nice touch with the cards, it was the first time I'd ever seen the rub a dub dub vanish and I was spellbound by his presentations, but mostly for me it was the the books on the greats like Vernon, Scarne,and Erdnase that got me inspired.

Snatch, the Jimmy Grippo book is being written by Jon Racherbaumer and published by Geno Munari.I can well remember watching TV with Geoff Latta many years ago and Jimmy Grippo came on the Tonight Show. We were completely fooled by the tricks, until I remembered that he was famous for using a card index. So we rewound the tape (of course we taped it) and watched it again. Nothing. So we rewound the tape and watched it again. All of a sudden we noticed that his hand was loitering near his lapel for a moment or two---------WOW!When Geno releases the tapes, you guys are going to get fried, big time!